Tainted UP leaders wait till kindom come

Expelled BSP ministers Babu Singh Kushwaha (R) and Badhshah Singh join BJP in the presence of BJP National Vice President, Vinay Katiyar at Party office in New Delhi on Tuesday. BJP Uttar Pradesh state unit chief Surya Pratap Shahi(L) is also seen in this picture. PTI Photo

In politics charity begins literally at home. And no party in UP is an exception to this.

The BSP, UP’s ruling party, has announced the ministers dismissed on corruption grounds will not get the ticket to contest polls. True, they are not getting the ticket, but one of their wives is. Facing a CBI probe for his alleged role in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam, Anant Kumar Mishra has bequeathed his political legacy to his wife, Shikha, who is contesting from the newly constituted seat Maharajpur in Kanpur.

And the man who stands to gain in a major way from his party’s decision is BSP state president Swami Prasad Maurya, a powerful minister. While Maurya will once again test his luck from Kushinagar, his daughter Sangh Mitra Maurya has joined the fray in Etah district’s Aliganj, the constituency of dismissed minister Awadhpal Yadav.

And Maurya’s son Utkrash Maurya is trying to retain his base in his father’s traditional constituency, Unchahar, in Rae Bareli.

Another minister Ram Achal Rajbhar has secured BSP nomination for his son Sanjay Rajbhar for the Akbarpur seat. Former chief minister Kalyan Singh, who is trying to make a comeback, has fielded son Rajvir and daughter-in-law Premlata from Etah and Aligarh, respectively, under the banner of the Jan Kranti Party.

Unable to contest polls, jailed Samajwadi Party leader and former minister Amarmani Tripathi has ensured party nomination for his son Aman Mani from Nautanwa in Maharajganj.

Party-hopper Naresh Agarwal, who left the BSP last week to join the SP, too got a ticket for his son Nitin Agarwal from Hardoi.

Former Vidhan Sabha speaker Dhaniram Verma, who has also returned to the SP, but does not want to contest, wants ticket for his son Mahesh Verma, a BSP MLA from Bidhoona in Kannauj.

The picture is not much different in the Congress Lok Sabha member Jagdambika Pal’s son Abhishek Pal (Basti Sadar), Union steel minister Beni Verma’s son Rakesh Verma (Dariyabad in Barabanki) and Lokpati Tripathi’s son Laliteshwar Tripathi Marihan-Mirzapur) are set to join the fray.

As regards the BJP, Lucknow MP Lalji Tandon’s son Ashutosh Tandon and former chief minister Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj Singh (Ghaziabad) are on the party list.